Marketing Fun

by Tif E. Boots

So, you have your book completed and published. Congratulations. Time to sit back, relax and wait for them to fly off the shelves. No, no it is not that time, now it’s time for more work. You can’t expect to sell your book if no one knows it exists.  Marketing and promotion are hard and go hand in hand. You have to understand your audience, for some that in itself can be complicated. If, like me your books are for kids, you have to figure out how to catch the kids attention as well as the parents. The kids will read your book, but it is the parents that buy them. You must create value in your identity as an author to deliver authentic respect and customer connections to new and existing readers. Then you have to figure out how to promote your book. There is no one thing that can be done and instantly work every time.

I currently have 7 books published. There has not been a day since my first one was released that I have not mentioned them to anyone that will listen. My books are far from flying off shelves no matter what I do, and it can be discouraging. There are of course people and companies that will market for you, and they will probably get you seen and possibly sell some books, but they can also be pricey. If you are a broke writer like me, keep reading for some cheaper ways to be noticed.

Word of mouth is going to be your first and cheapest option. You have friends, you have family, they have friends, they have family. They know people that you do not. Ask them to help by simply sharing your work or Facebook posts with others. They do not even have to have read your book for that. 

If I am in a local bookstore or library and see someone looking at poetry, I am not shy about asking if they have heard of Angels and Daffodils by Diane Everett. If I haven’t read it a simple “someone told me, it was good.” Maybe just enough to get them to look into it. If I have read it I will tell them honestly “her work has helped me out of dark places,” “or made me see the world in a different way” Just that little bit of pleasant interaction and title drop may be all that is needed to find my friend Diane a new reader. If that new reader tells 1 friend and that friend tells 1 friend, and it keeps going like that. The one new reader I found for Diane can become hundreds of new readers.